While I have been mistaken for him on Twitter, to the occasional amusement of what is currently now 3,300 followers, I do not have very much in common with Rob Ford.

After all, I work as a composer and sound designer for theatre and film who has won numerous awards and was shortlisted last year for the prestigious Siminovitch Prize.

And since the end of May, I have managed to both amuse and confuse with the Twitter account @TOMayorFrod, which has provided a satirical commentary on events since the fallout from reports about the infamous video.

But there is one specific experience I have shared with the Mayor of Toronto.

(And it has nothing to do with the bobblehead I got him to autograph today.)

While I have tried pretty much every recreational drug out there, for a year or so — back in the mid-1990s — I was a user of crack cocaine.

While this is a difficult thing to publicly admit, Ford’s recent admission has inspired me to provide a personal perspective, especially in light of how much attention the Mayor Frod tweets have received.

Crack is truly one of the most damaging drugs around. While not addictive in the usual sense, because it does not cause a physical dependency, it does foster an intense psychological compulsion.

The users become obsessed with obtaining and consuming it; it causes a person to become paranoid and deceitful, to lie and deny to friends and loved ones and to ultimately abandon everything else in their life to descend into a dark abyss surrounded only by other users, amongst whom there is scant trust or compassion.

Fortunately, with considerable effort, I managed to climb out of the pit.

I did not go to rehab — although would recommend it for anyone in that situation — but with the help of supportive friends and a resolve to overcome the compulsion, I made my escape.

Not everyone is able to do that. But the driving force for me was a recognition that I had a problem and a desire to be free of it.

Even in the darkest moments, I knew it was a bad thing that would inevitably hurt the ones close to me, not only myself.

Doug Ford and Richard “Rob Frod” Feren

As a result, I feel no empathy for Rob Ford or his sister and mother, let alone his brother Doug. None of them will admit there is a problem. Rather, they blame anyone who suggests that there is.

The situation would be bad enough if the mayor was a private citizen, but he is the mayor of my city, whose refusal to step down even temporarily is an act of sheer malice.

Ford is a despicable ogre, grossly unsuited for his position regardless of substance abuse issues, who is dragging the entire city into this maelstrom. The man does not want our help and sneers at any attempt to offer it.

This loathsome creature displays little empathy for others based on his statements about cyclists, transsexuals, journalists, downtowners, crack users — anyone, in fact, who is not one of his hate-filled enablers.

Don’t wring your hands for him because he deliberately brought this upon himself. And upon all of us, too.

The mayor’s supporters — who I prefer to call “accomplices” — will continue to make the whole story about poor Rob and his substance problems (“Hey, we all make mistakes!”) and how we should feel compassion for him. A compassion that none of them would ever extend to, say, a young black person caught using crack.

Don’t take the bait.

The problem has never been his drug use, it has always been his chronic pattern of lying and his abusive behaviour toward not only his opponents but his own colleagues and family.

The problem has been his incompetence in public office, his hyping of achievements that were never achieved, his tendency to divide people, foster resentment and alienate his closest allies.

The problem has been his disgraceful hypocrisy in both his personal and political life.

I do not care if he “gets help” and I do not care how any of this affects his family who have been a pernicious cancer upon my city for decades.

I want him and his brother out of public office. Forever. (As for his children, the best possible outcome might be his incarceration, so that he is not an example to follow.)

But until that comes to pass, I plan to continue updating at @TOMayorFrod, to shine the searing light of satire on everything that surrounds Ford.

While humour might be the tool I have elected to use, I am not doing it for the laughs, either.